


Forever for You

by GotTheSilver



Series: Fireside 'verse [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Established Relationship, Family Dynamics, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GotTheSilver/pseuds/GotTheSilver
Summary: “Are you sure you want to do this?” Tony asks. “It’s not going to be happy toddlers, there’s going to be some angry kids there, probably angry at us.”Steve sighs, idly stroking a pattern along Tony’s leg. “Well, better me than each other. They’ve got a right to be angry, if I’ve got to take the brunt of that, then that’s okay.”“You shouldn’t have to,” Tony says softly as he picks up his tablet again. “But I get it. Set it up for the weekend.”
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Fireside 'verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1429378
Comments: 32
Kudos: 185





	Forever for You

**Author's Note:**

> reading the previous parts is pretty necessary to understand how we got here.
> 
> call it an interlude? part 2.5?
> 
> I'm already working on the next part, so it'll be coming.

Steve never thought about having kids, at least, not seriously. He had idle thoughts after he met Peggy but part of him always knew that those thoughts would never come to fruition. Now, though, he has Morgan. Some of Morgan, anyway. She’s not his, but she kind of is, and, god, he loves her. He would’ve loved any kid that Tony had a hand in making, he knows it like he knows every angle of his shield, but Morgan is this little firecracker of a kid that Steve completely adores.

She’s fallen asleep on him, curled up on his lap, her head resting against his chest. Steve could get up and move her to her bed, but he just sits there, still somewhat amazed she trusts him enough to sleep on him. It would’ve been so easy for her to hate him, to blame him for breaking up her family, but somehow she doesn’t, and Steve’s thankful for that every day.

“Hey,” Tony says quietly, brushing a hand over Steve’s hair.

“Hi,” Steve says, tilting his head and looking at Tony standing behind him. “How was your day?”

“Busy,” Tony sighs, loosening the tie around his neck. “The shareholders are, well. It was busy. But I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You sure?” Steve asks, eyes tracking Tony as he walks around the couch before sitting down. “You know I—”

“I know,” Tony says, sinking into the couch and leaning against Steve’s side. “I’d much rather just sit with you and hear about your day. How was she?”

“She was great,” Steve says. “We went to the library after I picked her up, so she’s got a new stack of books, and she has an invite to a birthday party from, uh, Brooke, I think. She didn’t seem that excited about going, though, so I don’t know what’s happening with that.”

“The trial and tribulations of schoolyard politics,” Tony sighs. “Maybe we shouldn’t have moved her, she was pretty happy doing Kindergarten where she was.”

“We all agreed she’d be better off going to school in Brooklyn,” Steve says firmly, the nightmare of that fight with Pepper still in the back of his mind. “And she is happy, she loves her teacher, and she’s fitting in well. I just don’t think she likes Brooke. Kids don’t get on with everyone.”

“And she’s my kid,” Tony says, rubbing a hand over his face. “You know you can put her to bed, right?”

Steve looks down at the top of Morgan’s head, stroking a hand along her back. “We were watching a movie, I didn’t want to move her,” he says.

“You sound serious,” Tony says, eyeing him. “What is it?”

Standing up in one fluid move, still cradling Morgan to his chest, Steve smiles at Tony. “It’s not that serious,” he says. “I’m going to put her down. There’s some take out in the fridge if you’re hungry.”

“My hero.”

Steve lets out a soft laugh and walks off to Morgan’s room, the star lights Tony designed coming on as he nudges the door open. Balancing her against his chest, Steve pulls down the sheets on her bed and puts her on the bed, gently resting her head on the pillow. She frowns a little in her sleep, and Steve reaches for her Hulk plush, placing it in her arms. Crouching down, Steve presses a kiss against her forehead before straightening up and heading out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Padding down the hall, Steve rubs a hand over his beard as he walks into the kitchen. Tony’s standing by the counter picking at a carton of cold take out, a tired smile crossing his face when he spots Steve. “She go down okay?”

“Fast asleep the whole time,” Steve says, taking a spring roll from the carton Tony offers him. A comfortable silence passes over them as they eat, shoulders brushing together, until the rest of the take out is gone. Steve starts to tidy the kitchen up while Tony goes to get changed. When Steve’s done, he wanders out to find Tony stretched out on the couch, a tablet in his hand, and he rolls his eyes fondly as he lifts Tony’s feet to sit down, letting them fall in his lap.

“So,” Tony says, putting his tablet down and pressing his foot against Steve’s thigh. “What’s the not so serious thing you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Connor, from the publicity department contacted me today with a request,” Steve says, fingers tapping against Tony’s leg.

“That sounds ominous.”

“I think that says more about your dealings with them than it does about them,” Steve says with a small smile. “One of the orphanages you’ve been funding wants us to come and visit. Not as a media thing, the kids have been asking to see us.”

“Oh,” Tony says, brow furrowed. “Sure. When? Do they want anything?”

“Just us,” Steve says. “I think the kids could just use some reassurance, they’ve been through a lot. I figure since Pepper’s taking Morgan on Friday, we could visit this weekend?”

“Okay, but—”

“What?”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Tony asks. “It’s not going to be happy toddlers, there’s going to be some angry kids there, probably angry at us.”

Steve sighs, idly stroking a pattern along Tony’s leg. “Well, better me than each other. They’ve got a right to be angry, if I’ve got to take the brunt of that, then that’s okay.”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Tony says softly as he picks up his tablet again. “But I get it. Set it up for the weekend.”

Giving Tony a nod, Steve sinks back into the couch, his hand running up Tony’s leg, fingers pressing lightly against Tony’s inner thigh. “Put the tablet down,” he says, raising an eyebrow at Tony when he peeks over the top of his tablet at Steve. “Come to bed with me.”

“Well, when you put it like that, how can I resist?”

*

“We’ve got a lot of angry and upset kids here,” April says as she guides them through the building. “I’m not sure what they told you when we made the request—”

“We know,” Steve interrupts gently. “We’re just here to help any way we can.”

April nods, her locs falling around her shoulders. “Look, we all know you’re not responsible for what happened, not really, but I got kids who had to fend for themselves during those five years, I got kids whose parents vanished, I got kids who vanished and came back to no parents. The funding for this place has been amazing, Mr Stark, the therapists and everything? We appreciate it, but this problem is bigger than money.”

“It always is,” Tony says. “April, we’re here to see what they need that I haven’t thought of. Clothes and therapy and tutors are the easy part, but maybe one of them wants to be an artist and needs different supplies, or needs help deciding on whether they want to go to college, or they want out of New York but don’t know how to make that happen. That’s why we’re here.”

April looks both of them over, narrowing her eyes at them, and Steve hasn’t felt so under scrutiny since his ma caught him and Bucky throwing stones at abandoned houses when they were kids. Evidently they pass, because she nods and leads them into a room. The kids are all scattered on comfortable looking seats, some on bean bag chairs, others on the floor with cushions, and they look up when April claps her hands.

“I think you all know Mr Stark and Mr Rogers,” she says. “They’re just here to talk to you, no pressure. If you don’t want to talk to them, then you don’t have to and they’ll respect that.”

Steve watches Tony step forward. “Hi,” Tony says. “I know you’ve probably got a lot to say to us, maybe even want to yell at us, and we get that. What we want to know is how we can make your lives, and your futures, easier. There’s no trick here, I’m not going to come to you in ten years and say you owe me a favour, I just want to help.”

“Will you buy me a car?” a kid calls out, making the room laugh.

“What do you need a car in New York for?” Tony says with a grin. “Look, we’re just gonna be hanging out, I know you have an engineering room so that’s where I’ll be heading, and Steve here is—”

“If Ms April agrees, I thought maybe the gym,” Steve says, noticing several kids perk up. “Who wants to join me?”

“To do what?” one of the girls sitting in the cushions asks.

“Whatever you want,” Steve says with a shrug. “If I know Tony, the gym is state of the art, right? Lots of things to do?”

“Guilty,” Tony says.

“Okay then,” Steve says, on more comfortable ground. “Whoever wants to join me in the gym go and get changed into clothes you don’t mind sweating in, and I’ll meet you there.”

The kids wanting to join Steve get up and start making their way out, chatting excitedly amongst themselves, and Steve takes one last look at Tony, already engaging with a group of kids around him, before heading out the door himself.

He finds the gym with April’s directions, and when he gets there he’s struck by the familiarity of what he sees, it’s like a mini version of the gym at the compound, only presumably without the extras that make it stand up to the superhuman levels of strength thrown at it. Although, considering Tony, Steve wouldn’t put it past him. Steve quickly arranges some mats in the open space and checks to make sure there’s some boxing gloves in one of the storage units.

The door opens and Steve turns, nodding at the kids as they file in and take seats on the mats. “Hi,” Steve says, joining them on the floor so he’s not looming over them. “How many of you take the boxing lessons that are on offer here?” he asks, nodding as all of them put their hands up. “Okay, great, we’ll warm up and then get started.”

“Are we going to get to fight you?” a girl at the front asks, her eyes narrowing as if she can’t quite believe it.

“Absolutely,” Steve says, smiling as an excited buzz goes around them. “But first,” he continues, getting to his feet. “On your feet, spread out, we’ll start with some arm circles.”

*

By the end of the session, Steve’s actually built up a sweat, and he can’t help the smile on his face as he watches the kids stretch it out, chatting and laughing amongst themselves. There’s a light knock at the door that grabs Steve’s attention, and when he looks up, Tony’s poking his head in, a smear of grease above his eyebrow.

“If I come in, are you gonna put me to work?” Tony calls over.

“No, we’re done,” Steve says with a smile, watching Tony walk in.

“Hi,” Tony says quietly as he stops just in front of Steve. “You’re very sweaty.”

“The kids gave me a good workout,” Steve says, raising his voice so the kids can hear him. “They should be proud of themselves, it seems like those boxing lessons are paying off.”

“Mr Stark?” one of the kids speaks up, stepping forward. “Why did you do all this?”

Tony turns to look at her, his eyes widening slightly. “What’s your name?”

“Lucia.”

“Good to meet you, Lucia,” Tony says with a small smile. “Uh, I guess—you all know I have a daughter? Right, well—” Tony breaks off and sighs. “The simple answer is that if I hadn’t survived, I know she would’ve been taken care of, but not everyone is so lucky. This is my way of trying to make a difference, I guess. And, look, if there’s anything you guys need here? Let Ms April know, and we’ll try and make it happen. Sound good?”

“Yeah,” Lucia says, a tentative smile crossing her face. “And, like, we’re doing okay here Mr Stark. It’s better than where I was before, anyway, and there’s always something to do.”

“I’m—good,” Tony says. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Plus, we don’t gotta leave when we turn eighteen, and that really helps,” Lucia says, and that’s followed by a murmur of agreement from everyone else.

“Not gonna kick you out at eighteen,” Tony says. “But you do all know that you have access to SI’s scholarship funding if you want to go to college, right? There’s no strings, you don’t owe us a year of service or anything. And you’ve got our resources at your disposal if you’re looking for work, again, no strings.”

“What if we want to do what you do, with the Avengers, help save people,” a kid in a black hoodie asks. “Who do we talk to about that?”

Steve looks up, nodding at the boy who asked the question. “Then you can talk to me,” he says. “But definitely not until you turn eighteen.”

“Three years to go,” the kid says with a shrug. “I can wait.”

“Good to hear it,” Steve says. “Don’t feel like you have to stick to it, though. There’s a lot more paperwork involved than you’d ever guess. Right,” Steve continues, clapping his hands together. “I don’t know about any of you, but I’m starving.”

“Ignore him, he’s always starving,” Tony says. “But there may or may not be an order from Georgios in the dining hall.”

At that, the kids all look at each other before scrambling out of the room, leaving Steve and Tony alone. As much as he wants some pizza, Steve takes a moment and pulls Tony closer, resting his hands on Tony’s hips. “Hey.”

“Hi. Seriously, you’re disgustingly sweaty, what on earth were you doing?”

“Bit of everything,” Steve says with a small shrug. “They’re good kids.”

“They are,” Tony says. “There were a couple in my group I want to take to SI, give them a tour, see what they think.”

“Found a couple of budding geniuses?”

“Maybe. I’d like to give them the opportunity, at least,” Tony says. “We should go and get some food before the kids eat it all.”

“Just—” Steve breaks off and leans down slightly, catching Tony’s mouth in a soft kiss. A sense of familiar peace floods his body as Tony opens up to him, his hands sliding over Steve’s shoulders, and something settles in his chest.

“What was that for?” Tony asks when they part, his fingers playing with strands of Steve’s hair.

“I need a reason?” Steve asks, kissing Tony again, a quick brush of their lips this time. “How about because I love you?”

“Fair,” Tony says, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiles. “Good reason.”

*

By the time they make it home, it’s late, and Steve’s looking forward to going to bed. Rubbing his face as Tony turns the shower on, Steve stares in the mirror and sighs.

“What’s up?” Tony asks, sliding his arms around Steve’s waist and kissing the back of his neck. “You’re still as handsome as ever.”

Steve laughs softly. “Not what I was thinking, but I appreciate it. Just—a long day, that’s all. Did you meet that kid, Declan?”

“Uh, blonde? Quiet?”

“Yeah. He came over to me after we ate, asked if we could talk. He didn’t want to talk to me about being a superhero,” Steve says. “He wanted to talk about art, he asked me if it was true that I liked drawing.”

Tony rests his chin on Steve’s shoulder and meets his eyes in the mirror, his hands rubbing in comforting circles against Steve’s stomach. “You trying to tell me something?”

“No,” Steve says. “Maybe. I just—” he breaks off, a sense of helplessness coming over him. “He was a good kid. His mom died before Thanos happened, and then when he vanished, his dad—he couldn’t take it. Killed himself. No other family that could take Declan in, and now he’s at the orphanage.” As much as he wants to, he doesn’t avoid Tony in the reflection, meeting his searching gaze. Steve doesn’t know what Tony sees, but after a moment, he feels another kiss against his skin and some of the anxiety flowing through his veins fades away.

“Drop your pants and get in the shower,” Tony says quietly, patting Steve’s stomach and stepping away.

Steve ducks his head to hide a fond smile and does what Tony says. By the time he looks up again, Tony’s already in the shower; he’s got his back to Steve, water pouring down his body, and Steve just watches, taking his fill of the curve of Tony’s back, the way the water makes his skin glisten. Before he knows it, he’s stepped inside the shower, his fingers trailing down the sides of Tony’s body as the water hits him. “I love you,” Steve whispers, not sure if Tony will hear him under the spray, not thinking it matters at all. “So much.”

*

“So we never really talked about it,” Tony says. “Kids.”

Steve pauses where he’s been running his fingers along Tony’s skin, his brain half asleep. “Considering I can’t get you pregnant—”

“Not what I was talking about, and you know it,” Tony says. “Did you—do you want kids?”

“We have Morgan,” Steve says, pulling Tony closer, the blankets getting tangled around his legs as he does. “She’s enough for me.”

“Okay,” Tony says, turning around in Steve’s arms. “But do you want more?”

“Is this because I mentioned that kid? Because I’m not—I didn’t mention him because we—” Steve breaks off and closes his eyes, not sure how to deal with the emotions threatening to spill out of him.

“Hey,” Tony says, pressing light kisses against Steve’s forehead, his eyelids, his cheeks. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, I just—I don’t know _how_ ,” Steve says, feeling Tony’s lips brush over his forehead again. He opens his eyes, and Tony’s right there, his hand coming up and resting against Steve’s neck. Steve leans into the touch as Tony’s fingers softly tap out a soothing pattern. “I never thought about it, having children. I knew I wasn’t healthy enough, and then the war, and, well, you know everything since then. And we have Morgan, god, Tony you know I love her.”

“I do. See, that’s the thing, I think that you have a lot of love to give,” Tony says. “And that’s not a bad thing.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” Steve says. “But that doesn’t mean we need another child.”

“I know. But, if you want to, then I’m saying that the option is there, and I’m all for it.”

“What about Morgan?”

“We’d talk to her,” Tony says, sliding his hand down until it’s resting over Steve’s heart. “If we got to a point where we needed to have that talk. And, of course, we’d have to make sure any kid we bring into the family would get on with her, but as long as they’re not a budding serial killer I think we’d be okay.”

Steve leans back to look at him, raising an eyebrow. “That’s where your mind goes?”

“You’re the one who insists on watching crime shows, where else do you expect my mind to go?”

“You don’t have to watch them with me,” Steve says. “Just because you like working out who the killer is before the show tells you—”

“Well if they weren’t so predictable, then maybe I wouldn’t work it out.”

“I think possibly we’re getting off topic,” Steve says with a sigh, rolling onto his back, gratified when Tony follows, worming his way underneath Steve’s arm and resting his head on his shoulder. “What do you think I should do?”

“You really connected with that kid?”

“I did,” Steve says, thinking of the way Declan’s eyes had widened when Steve did a quick sketch of the Avengers on the back of a pizza box, how he’d scrambled onto Steve’s lap and demanded to be shown how to draw Hulk.

“Then—you can always go and spend more time with him,” Tony says, resting an arm over Steve’s chest. “See how it goes. If you want to go further with it, then we can talk about it and see what happens. How old is he?”

“Seven,” Steve says with a heavy sigh. “The way he talks, I think he was a baby when his mom died, it doesn’t seem like he knew her.”

“So he was, what? Five when he came back?”

“About that. He’s one of the youngest there, and I know it’s not a bad place, that they’re all being taken care of, but—”

“I get it,” Tony says. “And, for what it’s worth, if it came down to it, you’d be a wonderful father.”

“Tony—”

“You would. You’re already a great bonus dad to Morgan, any kid would be lucky to have you in their life.”

Steve doesn’t know what to say to that, doesn’t know how to acknowledge the enormous amount of faith Tony has in him when it comes to this. Staring up at the ceiling, his fingertips tracing along Tony’s forearm, Steve tries to find the words. “I—my ma once said that if I had the opportunity to have a family, that I shouldn’t miss out. She knew it wasn’t likely to happen, that it was a miracle I was even alive, but she—” Steve breaks off, his voice thick with emotion. “She held out that hope for me.”

“Sounds like a smart lady,” Tony says quietly. “I mean it, Steve. You want to expand our family, I’m right there with you. I’d like to meet the kid next time we go back, though. Make sure I can win him over as much as you apparently have done.”

“Okay,” Steve says. “Okay, yeah. I’d like that.”

“Considering we’d both be raising him, I’d hope you would,” Tony says, and Steve can feel him smiling against his skin. “I mean, assuming you—”

“We’re getting married, don’t be an idiot,” Steve says impatiently. “If we do this, then it’s a we, we’re doing it together.”

“Always seems to work out better that way, doesn’t it?”

Steve smiles, pulling Tony closer until Tony’s practically sprawled out on top of him. “We do okay,” he says, outright grinning when Tony rolls his eyes. Reaching a hand up, Steve cups the back of Tony’s head and draws him in for a kiss, the tension leaking away as he loses himself in the demanding softness of Tony’s mouth.

It’s a steady push and pull, neither of them trying to take it further, despite the fact it would be so easy to do so; in this moment all Steve really wants is the comfort of having Tony so close, the knowledge that they’re building this life together, wherever it takes them. The idea that maybe, just maybe, the two of them together is how it’s meant to be.

When the kiss breaks, Tony rests their foreheads together, and Steve closes his eyes for a moment, his fingers gently rubbing the back of Tony’s head. “Thank you,” Steve says.

“We’re a team, Rogers,” Tony says, the corners of his mouth turning up in a small smile. “Don’t you forget it.”

**Author's Note:**

> fic post on [twitter](https://twitter.com/starstarked/status/1259851317931118593)
> 
> fic post on [tumblr](https://gotthesilver.tumblr.com/post/617828598272901120/fic-forever-for-you-fireside-verse-stevetony)
> 
> come chat!


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